Are we set for a green election?

As Gordon Brown fires the starting pistol on what promises to be the closest election in decades, green business leaders ask whether the low carbon economy could prove a vote winner. From
BusinessGreen, part of the
Guardian Environment Network

The three party leaders today - Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Gordon Brown. Photograph: PA

Are we set for a green election?

As Gordon Brown fires the starting pistol on what promises to be the closest election in decades, green business leaders ask whether the low carbon economy could prove a vote winner. From
BusinessGreen, part of the
Guardian Environment Network

James Murray from BusinessGreen, part of the Guardian Environment Network

Wednesday 7 April 2010 05.59 EDT
First published on Wednesday 7 April 2010 05.59 EDT

Green business leaders remain divided on the scale of the impact environmental and low carbon issues are likely to have on the election campaign, which was formally kicked off yesterday when Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed the election would take place on May 6.

Speaking last month, energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said that the environment and climate change could emerge as a "top three" issue during the campaign as each party seeks to tout its green credentials. However, he predicted that businesses and the electorate would have to display higher levels of interest in the low carbon economy if the leading parties are to make it a central feature of their campaigning.

Green business leaders are increasingly sceptical that this will be the case and are predicting that low carbon policies will slip down the agenda as politicians choose to focus on the economy.

"What we'd like to see is the whole thing being fought on the architecture of a Green New Deal," Solarcentury founder Jeremy Leggett told BusinessGreen.com. "But the only person who has really articulated that approach so far is Vince Cable. Peter Mandelson talks about a low carbon revolution, but it is not a revolution of a scale anyone on Silicon Valley would recognize."

He added that there was a strong case for the Parties to make low carbon policies a central part of their manifestos, particularly given the scale of the economic opportunity clean technologies represent. "I would not even couch it in terms of climate change and would solely focus on the opportunity," he said. " But I would be very surprised if I am not disappointed by the campaign."

However, others are convinced that environmental issues could yet emerge as a somewhat surprising electoral issue, particularly at a local level.

The Green Party announced today that it would for the first time put forward a full slate of candidates for London seats and is riding high in the polls in Brighton Pavillion, Norwich South and Lewisham Deptford with a genuine chance of securing its first parliamentary seat.

Meanwhile, insiders have suggested that Ed Miliband's role as Labour's manifesto co-ordinator could result in many of the low carbon policies he has pioneered at the Department of Energy and Climate Change being adopted as part of the manifesto.

In addition, Miliband has repeatedly attempted to highlight lukewarm Conservative support for wind farms and renewable energy targets as an electoral issue, and the contentious topic of wind farms as well as the credibility of the Conservatives' commitment to environmental issues could yet play a key role in the campaign.

Margaret Ounsley, head of public affairs at WWF, said that a number of NGOs were working on an Ask the Climate Question campaign designed to encourage voters to ask their prospective candidates about their stance on climate change issues - a campaign fuelled in large parts by polls and anecdotal evidence suggesting that some prospective MPs do not regard climate change as a significant issue.

Dale Vince, founder of green energy firm Ecotricity, added that for green businesses onshore wind policy is the "acid test" by which various party's seriousness about tackling climate change should be measured. He warned that while Labour had failed to adequately address the planning issues that dog many onshore wind farm projects, both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seemed intent on erecting more planning barriers for onshore projects.

The Conservatives meanwhile recently launched a wide range of new energy policies designed to cut the UK's carbon emissions and are reluctant to ditch a commitment to green issues that has proved central to David Cameron's efforts to reestablish the party as a credible electoral force. They have also repeatedly hit back at Labour's efforts to undermine the party's green credentials, by arguing they supported several flagship policies, such as the feed in tariff and plans for a green loans scheme, ahead of the government.

In addition, green business groups are poised to launch a series of reports over the coming weeks designed to force the debate surrounding low carbon policies up the electoral agenda.

The Aldersgate Group is currently putting the finishing touches to a major new report backed by a large number of high profile businesses that will set out eight policy recommendations that the coalition of low carbon firms would like to see adopted in the first 100 days of the next government.

They include proposals to extend the role of carbon pricing, develop a simpler and more coherent low carbon regulatory framework, build a supply chain strategy to go aloing side the existing low carbon industrial strategy, and force the Treasury to play a more proactive role in cutting carbon emissions.

"Our central message is "OK, there's a recession on, but there is no need to ignore the environment, and it can play a central role in the recovery"," explained a spokesman for the group.

Similarly, the Green Alliance think tank is undertaking some work on behalf of the Green Standards Group of firms to assess the leading parties' manifestos and ask how they will impact the development of the low carbon economy.

Overall experts are sceptical that climate change and the low carbon economy can knock questions about leadership and the recession from the top of the electoral agenda, and are increasingly frustrated that no party has fully articulated how low carbon businesses could provide the foundations for a healthy and sustainable economic recovery. However, optimism remains that the electoral microscope could yet settle on large number of environmental issues, in large part as a result of inconsistencies in all the leading parties' approach to climate change.